UPDATE 1-Romney says ready for long fight for White House

(Adds details, comments from voter)

By Jason Szep

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. Jan 4 (Reuters) - Trounced by a long-shot candidate in Iowa, Republican Mitt Romney put on a brave face on Friday in New Hampshire for the next test of his well-funded White House bid, and said he was ready for a long battle.

Romney looked past his stunning 8-point loss to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and even beyond Tuesday's New Hampshire primary and emphasized that the campaign for the Republican nomination in November's presidential election was a "50 state effort."

"Getting a first place finish in Iowa is not necessary to become the nominee," the former Massachusetts governor said after munching on pancakes with voters at the Golden Egg Diner in the southern New Hampshire city of Portsmouth.

Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, rallied support from evangelical Christians to easily beat Romney despite being vastly outspent by the former Massachusetts governor and venture capitalist who would be the first Mormon president.

Just as Huckabee's insurgent campaign threatened Romney in Iowa, a surge by Arizona Sen. John McCain has erased Romney's once-dominant lead in New Hampshire.

Iowa and New Hampshire touch off the state-by-state battles to determine which Republican and Democratic candidates will face off on Nov. 4 to replace George W. Bush as president.

The stakes are high for Romney, who has invested more time and money than his rivals in New Hampshire -- a state where he maintains a summer home and is regarded as something of a local after years of living in neighboring Massachusetts.

Failure to win one of the first two nominating contests, despite the best organizational strength and deepest pockets of any of the Republican candidates, could fuel serious doubts over his prospects of winning the nomination.

"Things look very good for me at this stage," Romney said of New Hampshire. "I expect to go aggressively forward in this campaign. I expect to win. I hope to win."

LAGGING IN POLLS

However, McCain holds a 4-point edge over Romney among New Hampshire Republicans -- 34 percent to 30 percent -- according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Friday.

Romney said he would be satisfied with second place in New Hampshire. "I would like to take one of those two tickets out of New Hampshire," he told reporters.

He said Iowa's results showed voters are clamouring for change in Washington, and he cast himself as an outsider.

"There is no way Sen. McCain is going to be able to come into New Hampshire and say he is the candidate that represents change," said Romney, who was once dubbed "Mr Turnaround" for rescuing the debt-ridden Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002.

"Every place I've been I've brought change."

But Romney lately has faced a barrage of troubling headlines in the state and New England, beginning with an anti-endorsement in the Concord Monitor newspaper bluntly headlined "Romney should not be president" on Dec. 22.

The New Hampshire paper called Romney a phony because of his shifting positions on hot-button issues -- from gay rights to abortion and gun control -- and said he "must be stopped."

The Boston Globe -- New England's largest newspaper whose reporters have covered Romney extensively -- also endorsed McCain as its favorite Republican in the race.

The Boston Herald, a right-leaning tabloid, also backed McCain while New Hampshire's conservative Union Leader, the state's largest newspaper, took Romney to task for a "string of demonstrably false claims" and endorsed McCain.

Local polling shows nearly 40 percent of New Hampshire's Republicans are undecided, like Nancy Clayburgh, 56, a city councilor in Portsmouth who met Romney at the Golden Egg Diner and may support former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

"Romney's probably too much to the right for me," she said.

(Editing by Stuart Grudgings)